


Balance

by SevenCorvus



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Challenge Response, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Incest, M/M, One Shot, Sibling Incest, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-23
Updated: 2012-01-23
Packaged: 2017-10-30 01:12:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/326110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SevenCorvus/pseuds/SevenCorvus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything in the world is about balance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Balance

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: How to stop an exploding man, and 4 months later  
> First Heroes fic. This is in response to the Reunion Challenge posted. Probably not what you were asking for, but this is what came about. Feedback is love and will be rewarded with cookies (and smut).

In a way everything in the world is about balance, good and evil, light and dark, yin and yang. All of these things maintain a delicate balance, without which the world becomes skewed. That does not necessarily mean that something obviously significant is necessary to maintain a balance. If everything in the world is dark, one lit match is enough to provide contrast and keep the fragile system alive. In many cases, one might not even be aware of just how important a single variable plays, until it has been removed from life’s equation. So it was with Nathan Petrelli. For all his success and possessions, the removal of a single domino was enough to send his whole crashing down on him.

Peter Petrelli. His younger brother. Best friend. Confidante. For as long as his brother had lived, Nathan had taken for granted that he would always be there. It was never a question. Nathan was the difficult one, controlling, ambitious. Peter the caretaker, sensitive, dependent on affection. He had only to call, and Peter would be there with all of his support. He had never even considered a future where Peter wasn’t there, just a moment’s reach away.

Nathan had always thought that he was the strong one, the independent one. Unlike Peter, he didn’t need strong emotional attachments, could survive without them. His career was his focus, his life’s penultimate goal. Even with the threat of an explosion in New York, his primary concern was keeping his political capital alive. It was only Claire’s words, spoken at the last minute, which brought the reality’s danger in sharp relief. For all his shrewd maneuvering and intelligence, Nathan could be surprisingly successful in overlooking the obvious. Perhaps in certain cases, one of Isaac’s paintings might have been helpful in revealing the simple, subtle details that had gone unnoticed in Nathan’s life.

After all, despite his confidence in his own strength and survival skills, Nathan Petrelli could be quite childish in his behavior. He was never good at sharing, and quite possessive of Peter, never thinking that Peter might have other needs for his time. With a child’s innocent self-centeredness, Nathan just assumed that everything in the world would fall into play the way he wanted. All that changed in an instant, when Nathan last saw his brother on the verge of exploding.

That moment, that night, was enough to tear his entire world. For his entire life, Nathan had taken his brother for granted and now that he had finally realized just how much Peter meant to him, he was gone. The idea that Peter might have died without ever knowing how important he was to Nathan, was almost worse than his absence.

His wife left, taking the kids, not understanding why Nathan couldn’t move on after that night. His mother blamed him for everything, couldn’t comprehend why he was wasting his life. They couldn’t see how much Nathan’s equilibrium had gotten thrown off. The world was off kilter without Peter’s presence, achievements didn’t matter without his brother there to share them with. Days and weeks went by with Nathan staying in his brother’s apartment, firmly believing that he would return. Not wanting to hear or admit the possibility that Peter was gone forever, he couldn’t summon up the energy to care about the outside world. Until a phone call changed everything.

It was Mohinder. Miraculous though it seemed, Molly had finally sensed Peter. Barely taking the time to hang up the phone, Nathan rushed out of the apartment, flying at break neck speed to get to where Molly said his brother was. And suddenly after months of waiting, there he was.

“Nathan?”

And the world righted itself.


End file.
